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"Carina, translate for me!" Like a desert wind Abaal sweeps into the ring.
If this results in a fall he uses his standard action to get up, shake off, and pretend like it was intentional. "To throw them off."
Black sword in hand, Abaal shouts a challenge to the remaining warriors. "Yield and you might yet live! Otherwise, know that you challenge "
Then, belatedly, after a glance over to Carina he adds: "And company."
Abaal takes a running jump to the alter. His foot almost slips, but he manages to reach the top of it. He yells at the warriors, and Carina translates.
Ailean blesses Zero with strength of the Lantern god.
Prothero moves and misses with his attack. Zero also does a jumping move his involves a flying kick, and he connects with both attacks. Red drops to the ground.
Grace makes the slick area under the northern enemy (ooc)blue stay longer, and makes the ground slick underneath the unconscious warrior to the south (ooc)red(/ooc).
Blue falls again not able to get up. Green moves forward and attacks zero with his battleaxe. He misses.
Int Warrior Barbarian: 21
Int Abaal: 14
Int Prothero: 8 - Can change your Action
Int Grainne: 8 - Can change your action
Int Ailean: 6
Int Zero: 5
Int Warrior Warriors: 5
Int Carina: 3
Prothero attacks the green warrior, and drops him with his flurries.
All enemies are either flat on their backs or unconscious. You have won this battle. They are unfriendly with you, and spit out to Carina that they attacked because the you are trying to meet up with their allies who passed this way not long ago.
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Ailean stops shaking his lantern and faces the Kellid warriors, hoping that Carina will translate for him (in multiple ways) he says:
"Look finding fighter friends? Maybe hole people in early times from the light time? Gave lantern healing for stick holes to hole man, battle with wolf-demon, made new friend with hole man. You friend with us too? Lantern mind close holes and purples from fun fight for peace and tik-talking."
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They are unfriendly with you, and spit out to Carina that they attacked because the you are trying to meet up with their allies who passed this way not long ago.
"Look finding fighter friends? Maybe hole people in early times from the light time? Gave lantern healing for stick holes to hole man, battle with wolf-demon, made new friend with hole man. You friend with us too? Lantern mind close holes and purples from fun fight for peace and tik-talking."
Abaal sniffs, vaguely insulted that apparently no one will attack him.
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"Look. Guys? WE ARE HUNTING THOSE DAMNED SNAKES. They are enemies of ours. If we were thier llies would we have left you alive? Or would we have dumped your bodies in the snow and went on our way?"
"Now can you tell us where they went? We want to drag them out of the hole they are hiding in and make 'em pay for their wrong doings, and I bet you know the way better than us OR THEM..."
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Prothero stands quietly by, curious to see if his companions will ally with their attackers somehow, or if they'll just end up back in the same fight that ended a moment ago.
ooc I SWEAR IF THEY ATTACK AGAIN, I'M TURNING THEM INTO SNOWMEN. /ooc
They look unimpressed by Ailean's offer to heal them as Carina translates. "No healing for us. We will take care of our own and leave. Your fellows went that way not long ago." They point in the direction your map said you needed to go. They take off to the east. It's the same direction the first warrior you healed headed in.
Shortly after nightfall, the you come across the cave indicated on Skagni’s map. There is enough room for the PCs to huddle inside to escape the elements overnight.
As you begin their second day of travel, the sky is cloudy and ominously gray.
A character can walk for more than 8 hours in a day by making a forced march. For each hour of marching beyond 8 hours, a Constitution check (DC 10, +2 per extra hour) is required. If the check fails, the character takes 1d6 points of nonlethal damage. A character who takes any nonlethal damage from a forced march becomes fatigued. Eliminating the nonlethal damage also eliminates the fatigue. It’s possible for a character to march into unconsciousness by pushing himself too hard.
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Ailean reads the sky and sees the ancient Orisani symbol for bad weather, picture of a cloud, picture of wind. He attempts to inform you all of the forecast:
"Stone friends, bad clouds make shapes near the tip point. Move extra fast for warm hole before no sky lantern in the sky. Lantern heal many sleepys all day for me and for you.
He then walks to each party member and offers a tap from his endure elements stick.
"Warm stick so nice, but not help against some bad clouds, only warm-cold."
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Prothero, aided in his understanding of Ailean's words by his own reading of the weather, concurs, "As Ailean says, there's a storm ahead that might cross our path. If we push for a slightly longer day of travel today, we should be able to make the next camp on the map by nightfall, and have some shelter."
Ten feet into this dark granite cave, a large cavern opens up, its ceiling rising as high as thirty feet. Warm, humid air fills the chamber, and colorful fungi cover the floor and walls. Beneath a layer of iridescent algae, the faint images of cave paintings can be seen on all the cavern’s walls. Signs of a rockslide block what may once have been a passage farther into the cave.
You hear a cry as two medium creatures attack. One runs up to Grainne and attacks with a talon, the other attacks Zero. Both attacks hit, and a small amount of damage is done to both of them.
Deinonychus 22
Carina 14
Grainne 8
Prothero 7
Zero 7
Abaal 6
Ailean 2
Carina pulls out her bladed scarf, and waits to see what happens next. Grace Prothero and Zero all hit their targets with their first attacks. Zero and Prothero's second attacks both miss. Abaal's foe isn't impressed with his swing.
The creatures attack. None of the four attacks by the green Deinonychus hit Grace. Only one talon and the bite of the second creature make it past Zero's defenses.
Deinonychus 22
Carina 14
Grainne 8
Prothero 7
Zero 7
Abaal 6
Ailean 2
Green:
Purple:
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Grainne 8 5 DMG
Grace grits her teeth as the temperature around her drops, ice crystals forming on her body, slithers along her skin like water before disappearing as they fly off her body. She grips her fingers around an invisible hilt as the ice crawls up her arm to her hand, making a blade of frozen air which she slams into the tiny dino.
X1.5=16
Grace drops the green dinosaur with her attack.
Party Up
Deinonychus 22 Green dead, Purple 11, 3 Bleed
Carina 14
Grainne 8
Prothero 7
Zero 7
Abaal 6
Ailean 2
Between Prothero and Zero the other Deinonychus drops dead.
The cavern’s tall walls are covered with cave paintings under a thin layer of faintly glowing algae.
The paintings depict a castle at the base of a mountain. Outside the castle, a large creature with wings and a longneck lies on the ground before a figure lifting a huge red axe over its head to strike. Other humanoid figures cluster around the scene. The mural is then interrupted by a repeated design: two mammoths with a smaller one in tow marching east. This motif is repeated over and over in an orderly line from the top wall of the cave to the bottom. There are 30 copies of this design.
The next scene shows the wielder of the red axe lying on a raised mound within the castle, his weapon clutched to his chest. Other figures leave the castle carrying large bags on their shoulders.
The drawings continue on the other side of the cave, showing an avalanche cascading down to cover the tower.
The last drawing shows more of the humanoid figures standing over the edge overlooking the castle’s previous location, while four drawings of the moon in various states arc Above the scene. In this last picture, all of the humanoid figures have a smear of white color around their lower faces.
You find on the bodies: 3 bandages of rapid recovery*, 2 masterwork throwing axes, a potion of barkskin, 2 potions of endure elements, 6 pairs of snowshoes*, a fully charged wand of longstrider carved from a smilodon’s tooth, a bag of unworked gemstones worth 40 gp. a cloak of resistance +2, a potion of cure moderate wounds, 5 topazes worth 50 gp each, +1 studded leather and a +1 bolas.
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vs DC 12
"Rock block the cave whole, no bird men or men birds from rock side."
vs DC 18
"Ground thing first white, now color not white. Click-cloks always click-cloking...Oh! Oh! Oh! Axe man too! Chin hair is white, now color. Stranger than strange or stranger than me? Lantern mayhaps know."
vs DC 15
"Card caster, here long sleep the non-food of warrior men. Pretty things and thangs, my eyes don't see their secrets, mayhaps you hear the whispers of the shinies?"
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Prothero studies the cave-in alongside Ailean, asking the garble-tongued Pathfinder, "Wait, rock blocked the cave whole or blocked the cave hole? I guess it's both, or either, eh?"
Deciding it won't be fruitful to inquire further, Prothero then turns to consider the the images painted on the cave walls, particularly the elements pointed out by Ailean.
"I believe I've seen or heard something about this in my travels," he offers, sounding a bit surprised that he's got any knowledge about a painting in a cave, of all places, so far from his home. "The axe-wielding figure in the first scene is different from the other humanoids depicted. See how he is shown with a white beard? That is not something you typically see among the Kellid peoples. I think the painting of the three mammoths symbolizes migration, and each painting of three mammoths stands for the passage of a single year, so we're looking at thirty years here. And finally, the moon in its various stages symbolizes eternity, or some period of time that cannot be depicted with the migration symbol, usually meaning hundreds of years."
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Having just made a fire, grace walks over, "Think it was made by these guys?" Grace said, pointing to the dead men in the corner. "I think maybe they were caught in this cave with no way out. Poor sods must've starved to death... Well maybe if we're lucky they might still be able to give us a hand..." She said making a sign to ward off bad luck with her middle finger as she searched them and placed what she found by the fire.
"Lessee... we have a wand, 4 mystery potions, some bandages... some leather armor, a cape, some axes and a BOLA huh? haven't seen one o' these in a while... and... a big ol' bag o' gems. maybe we can use that to trade for something useful later. Hey Ailean, could you heal me really quick and check what this wand is? Can anyone check the potions or see if any of it is cursed?"
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"Lets tongue see..." Ailean says as he goes and sticks his tongue in each potion, one at a time.
"Lantern not contagious, no make scary-fear face or slimy tooth face. Hmmm...Liquid of leafy tree, not juicy fruit tree, leafy and brown only...liquid of two of warm stick, wait...warm stick in liquid, non first world make "Zero" sense Lantern...liquid of hole heal, medium power, not ghosty power, medium...put paste directly to hole in forehead.
Other fancies, got no clue, leaving it up to you."
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"Ah well, if it get's stuck on me, at least I'll look good wearing it." she says tossing on the blueish white cape. It reminded her of the sea under the sky and although she missed the sea, this helped a good bit. "Hey Prothero, these axes are made for throwing, think you'd be able to use them or the Bola?" She asked still trying to make sense of Aileans words.
"So, a moderate cure... ghosty power? a... warm stick?... and leafy not juicyfruit tree???" She muttered to herself trying to make heads or tails of it. Eventually she decided to let the others interret him and went to bed. "I'll take the next shift after I catch so rest. wake me up in a few hours."
The night passes uneventfully. When you wake up the next morning the storm has passed, and you head out following the map. Near midday, Skagni’s map directs you through a narrow ravine of ice and rock.
The shriek of a snowy owl dances off the high, rough walls of ice and rock inside this gorge, and the long shadows inside make it feel like evening rather than midday. Although the canyon provides a direct path through the rocky terrain of this area, the other side is almost invisible from the entrance. In the snow drenched plains leading to the gorge mouth, primeval aurochs and bison paw at the new snow to unearth scrub grass.